Like a real killer. With a Knife.

How much you believe in yourself plays a huge factor in how successful your business will be.

Self-belief is the best strategy I know. When you are full of self-doubt, you will have a very hard time moving forward. It will hold you back more than you can possibly imagine. Self-doubt is the number one cause of failure for most entrepreneurs.

Self-doubt leads to fear. Fear keeps you from ever taking action. Fear keeps you from progress. Fear keeps you from success. Fear keeps you from happiness. It’s impossible to be 100 percent fearless. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a simple idiot. You’ll never get rid of it completely, so choose something better to fear- like poverty.

Without self-confidence, you’ll constantly struggle. No one wants to spend money on someone who isn’t confident. Your belief in your products and services matters a lot. It shows that you have great pride in what you have to offer.

You have to be confident in what you do. You must honestly believe you are the best option for people. If you lack confidence, people will see it and they will never become buyers. If you’re not confidant in what you do, how can you expect prospects to have any confidence in you?

Success for your business is greatly determined by your beliefs and not your circumstances. No excuses are acceptable. As the saying goes, you have to believe in yourself before you can expect anyone else to. Take this to heart. Customers and employees will pick up on your confidence or lack thereof. They will either become confident in your business or lose faith in it. They will feed off you.

How confident you are in your product or service determines how aggressive you will market it. If deep down you know your product is not 100 percent awesome, you will be tentative with your marketing approach. Being timid isn’t going to get your business at the top of the food chain. When you lack confidence you lack the courage to try new innovative ideas.

No matter what industry you are in, you are in a competitive environment. It’s easy to allow yourself to become intimidated by your competition. Don’t worry about larger competitors. Believe in yourself and trust your abilities.

You need to have the mindset that people would be foolish not to buy your product or service.

You might not want to come right out and say that, but you should be thinking it. If you are not the best at what you do or at least are working your butt off to become the best, then what’s the point?

I should stress that I’m talking about confidence and not cockiness. Confidence is attractive. Cockiness is not. It is never cool to be an arrogant jerk. No one wants to work for that gal, and no one wants to do business with that guy. Believing you are the best in what you do is all about confidence in yourself, never arrogance.